By Hammad Al-Mutairi
KUWAIT, June 24 (KUNA) -- Personnel of the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate (KFSD) work hard throughout the year including the fasting month of Ramadan to fight fires and guide the public about means to protect themselves against blazes and accidents.
The firefighters often face various problems such as gathering of curious onlookers at the scene and confusion among the people at or around the affected location, thus hampering their life-saving mission.
Their missions include combating fires, rescue, medical aid, inspecting safety precautions at places with stored inflammable materials namely warehouses and examining buildings, forecast to crumble.
The Directorate advises against usage of poor-quality electrical and electronic appliances to avert high risks of circuits, a major cause of the blazes in the country.
According to its statistics, accidents in Kuwait increased by 10 percent in 2015 as compared to the previous year. The Directorate had to deal with 4,914 fires during 2015, higher by 14 percent in contrast to 2015.
Electrical circuit is the most recurrent cause of fires in residential and non-residential areas. Some of the fires have been categorized as arsons.
The Directorate has developed schemes for effective and speedy evacuation at the scenes. It advises people to acquire fire extinguishers and install automatic fire suppression systems, as some of the safety precautions. (end) hm.rk